Open Password – Wednesday, December 15, 2021
#1006
1000 issues Open Password – Open Password – Elisabeth Simon – Passwords – Radio Berlin-Brandenburg – Administration remote from citizens – Brexit – Helga Schwarz – German Library Institute – Bureaucratisms – Community – Open Access Days – Open Access Movement – Open Access Rules – Steep templates for corporate success – Frankfurt Book Fair – Future of Information Science – Berlin Working Group for Information – ZB MED Information Center for Life Sciences – Scientific Libraries – Debate Forum – Libraries as a guide for the future – RD Lankes – Corona – Books that moved us – Homage to that Book
Research data management – Data Stewards – ZB MED – BMBF – Academic research institutions – Training and profile building – Cologne University and City Library – Recommendations for action – National research data infrastructure – Log4Shell – Security gaps – Digital infrastructures – BSI – Interinstitutional cooperation – WhatsApp – Fake news – Fact check service – dpa – Messenger People by Sinch – International Fact-Checking Network – ThatsFact
- Title
1000 issues Open Password: Why I shudder at “Open” and “Password” and why I love “Open Password” – By Elisabeth Simon
II.
Research data management: Data stewards, what are they, what should they be?
III.
Log4Shell: Sharing security vulnerabilities is essential
Worldwide WhatsApp initiative to combat fake news: fact-checking service from WhatsApp, dpa and Messenger People
1000 issues Open Password
Why I shudder at “Open” and “Password” and why I’m fond of “Open Password”.
By Elizabeth Simon
Elizabeth Simon
Why do I think of predominantly negative associations, not when I think of “Open Password”, but rather of “Open” and “Password”? This in turn has to do with Open Password.
“Your password please,” said the friendly teller when I wanted to withdraw a large sum. In these gift-buying days, which begin a few weeks before Christmas, cash still seems to be better than its alternatives, although these are gradually displacing cash. And immediately I was overcome by panic of a worse kind. I couldn’t remember my password. Armed with three bank accounts and two phones and a terrible memory for numbers, my passwords play hide-and-seek with me. They are in the strangest places that I have long forgotten and quickly become the objects of my desperate search whenever more than one automatic debit of money is pending. Now I didn’t want to let the bank official or the audience waiting behind me witness this search, so I stepped aside and tried to compose myself. Gradually, my “digital panic” turned into internal recriminations and dissolved into a disturbing sense of unease.
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I would like a password for a citizen-oriented administration…
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“Please find the new number online,” said the news anchor from Radio Berlin-Brandenburg (rbb) when the telephone number 112 in Berlin for the fire and rescue services was down. This important or unimportant message, depending on who received it, applied to a city in which hundreds of thousands of citizens live who are not Internet-savvy and require external help to use the Internet. Every day there are some of them who find themselves in dire straits. When no help comes from outside and they are inevitably confronted with their ignorance and inability, they feel helpless and go into stress mode. Unlike the example above with me at the bank counter, however, they are the victims of an administration that is distant from the citizens.
It takes six weeks for the application for a passport to be processed by the Berlin city administration. This period can also be shortened, but this costs an extra 100 euros, as the information times of the citizens’ offices show. Now, owning a passport, which is only required to visit countries outside the EU, is not necessarily vital. On the other hand, Britain has left the EU and many of us have long-standing friends in Old England. We want to maintain these ties even after Brexit. On the other hand, shortening the processing time can also cost more than 100 euros, as the increased processing fee is changed by the citizens’ offices as they wish without them necessarily updating their website.
I imagine that there would have to be a password for a citizen-oriented administration. I would never forget this. However, I have had Open Password at my side in my conflicts with bureaucracy whenever it affected the information industry or libraries. Open Password dealt extensively with librarian Helga Schwarz’s dissertation on the downfall of the German Library Institute. This should also be read as a warning against excessive bureaucracy and should be read as a call for an awake (and at the time missing) community that could have taken on the concerns of the DBI.
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… and open access that reflects the lightness of being.
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: Real participation instead of mere concessions and added as a subtitle: Eliminating disadvantages for scientists from the global south. The last sentence needs to be supplemented because there are disadvantaged people in the open access movement not only in developing countries, but also locally. In any case, when I wanted to come out with a book open access, it seemed to me as if those responsible for their OA rules had immediately taken over all the complexities of the public sector. More on that elsewhere.
I would just like to say that I hope that terms associated with the word “Open” reflect openness and the lightness of being to some extent and do not cover up a cost-consuming, rigid regulatory framework. Even in contexts like these, I know Open Password is on my side.
The terms “open” and “password” make me shudder. But I soon enter a more pleasant world as soon as I put the two terms together (password is then written with a “d” at the end). When I receive one of Open Password’s three push services per week, I feel taken seriously and provided with sufficient information by the clever publisher. I’m not alone in this, because when the participants at one of the conferences “Stepping Templates for Corporate Success” (then still at the Frankfurt Book Fair) were asked who was a regular reader of Open Password, almost all hands went up.
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Future of information science – libraries as a guide to the future – books that moved us.
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In the following I would like to focus primarily on the books that Open Password and Simon-Verlag put together together and brought to a happy end:
- Future of Information Science – Does Information Science have a future? – Basics and perspectives – Offers in teaching – On the front lines of information science (2019). This book posed the question of a common paradigm for information science and presented an overview of the performance of German-speaking information science in various areas of work, from online marketing to fake news research to smart cities. The debate about the future of information science was continued at two events with the Berlin Working Group for Information and the ZB MED – Information Center for Life Sciences and then in articles in Open Password and other publications. An important result was that information sciences and academic libraries should and wanted to work together more closely than before. On the other hand, there were also voices that everything was fine in information science and that the quality of scientific contributions was determined by the age of the authors (assuming an inverse correlation here). These are opinions that the editor of Open Password certainly does not share, but which he gave public space to because Open Password is also a debate forum that is designed to accommodate different, even alternative, opinions.
- Guide to the future. Projects and examples (2021). This book was preceded by a translation of Lanke’s “Expect More” from the American language by, among others, the publisher of Open Password. From Lanke’s perspective, excellence in libraries is possible and necessary. The German translation was well received by readers, but I was often asked why examples from German-speaking countries were missing. The book “Libraries” with the editor of Open Password as publisher, among others, makes up for this gap by presenting excellent academic libraries both as a total work of art and excellent solutions in individual library work areas from open access to research data management to citizen science. The planned events had to be postponed due to Corona. But they will take place in 2022, and the debate about the future of academic libraries will continue anyway – in Open Password and in other publications.
- Books that moved us (2021), edited by Willi Bredemeier. 41 authors describe their encounter with a book that particularly influenced them, if not changed their lives. All contributions are written with passion. A homage to the book, a format that has recently come under siege due to digitalization. We can only hope that the new digital formats will take over much of what has always made the book beautiful.
These three books would not have been possible if Open Password and Simon Publishing had not joined forces. I am confident that these three books will make a difference. We have advanced the discussion about our future.
Research data management
Data stewards, what are they, what should they be?
(ZB MED ) The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is funding the DataStew project – data stewardship in German academic research institutions – investigation of the status quo and recommendations for training and profile building – for a period of nine months from February 1, 2022. Project partners are the Cologne University and City Library (USB) and ZB MED – Life Sciences Information Center. The project analyzes the emerging profession of data stewards. First, the partners examine the current academic research landscape with its different stakeholders. They then use this as a basis to develop concrete recommendations for action in practice.
Research data management (RDM) in institutions, research associations and projects creates new roles and task profiles that have so far been implemented very differently. In particular, the development of the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) highlights a landscape with very different requirements for fulfilling the range of tasks in RDM.
A new solution approach is the establishment of so-called data stewards. A wide range of tasks and responsibilities are currently associated with the work area of a data steward. In addition, data stewards are employed in different institutional contexts. The understanding of what tasks and roles or what institutional embeddedness data stewards have, how and whether they differentiate themselves from other emerging designations, is unclear in the national context. There is clearly a high need for personnel in the context of research data management.
Log4Shell
Sharing vulnerabilities is essential
“Log4Shell shows how vulnerable digital infrastructures can be. The Log4Shell vulnerability is easy prey for criminal hackers because it is widespread, easy to find and easy to exploit. Attackers are already exploiting this security gap on a massive scale using processes that are sometimes automated. It can be assumed that business applications in particular will be affected.
The Log4Shell vulnerability makes it clear how important, in addition to technical measures, functioning IT security and emergency management is. In the event of an attack on the IT infrastructure or new security gaps that arise, organizations can react quickly thanks to established processes, determine their own impact and, if necessary, initiate protective measures.
It was right and important that the BSI published the information about the vulnerability. Sharing information about security gaps according to regulated processes strengthens information security. Therefore, if possible, all companies, authorities and other organizations should report IT attacks. A current situation report is essential for all those responsible for IT security.”
Marc Fliehe, Head of Digital and Cybersecurity at the TÜV Association
Worldwide WhatsApp initiative
to combat fake news:
Fact checking service from WhatsApp,
dpa and Messenger People
(dpa) Together with WhatsApp and MessengerPeople by Sinch, the German Press Agency is now offering users the opportunity to have information shared via WhatsApp checked.
Joint action to curb misinformation: WhatsApp users can now submit content to the dpa fact check team if they are unsure whether they have false information or fakes. For the technical implementation of the new offer, the dpa is working with the Munich messenger service market leader MessengerPeople by Sinch.
The project is part of WhatsApp’s global initiative to reduce the spread of misinformation on the end-to-end encrypted messaging platform. Numerous officially verified members of the International Fact-Checking Network IFCN , including Fact Crescendo, Newschecker (India), Newtral (Spain) and Full Fact (UK), are already part of the initiative.
The dpa fact-checking team has existed since 2017 and is certified by the IFCN (International Fact-Checking Network). The dpa decides freely and independently which content is fact-checked. There is no binding entitlement to the dpa service for WhatsApp users.
Professional fact checking via WhatsApp. The German software company MessengerPeople has developed the software solution “ThatsFact” specifically for fact checking via WhatsApp. The tool enables media companies, verified members of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) and NGOs to clarify via WhatsApp whether information is factually true or false. In 2020, 15,000 inquiries via “ThatsFact” were checked for truth, and today there are already over 90,000.
The software solution “ThatsFact” was developed by MessengerPeople by Sinch specifically for the needs of fact-checking organizations. It enables teams to process truth requests via WhatsApp in a professional, scalable and data protection-compliant manner. Text as well as links, images and videos are pre-analyzed: An automatic comparison takes place in parallel with images and videos to determine whether the content is the original or an edited source. All requests are protected via the official WhatsApp Business API.
Open Password Archive – Publications
OPEN PASSWORD ARCHIVE
DATA JOURNALISM
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